In 1996, 23 years ago, Greece and Turkey came heartbeats away from total war.

The Imia Crisis (Kardak for the Turks) lasted a couple of days, but it still haunts both countries, especially Greece as three officers of the Hellenic Navy (Christodoulos Karathanasis, Panagiotis Vlahakos, Ektoras Gialopsos) lost their lives in the line of duty when their helicopter (ΠN21), crashed into the sea during a low-level night reconnaissance mission, under extreme weather conditions, far beyond the operational envelope of their AB-212ASW.

Turkey, despite the legal proofs widely available, disputes the two small Greek islets even today.